Jol: Zamora comments on Fulham just 'sour grapes'

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By Chris Teale

The QPR striker recently suggested that many Cottagers' players do not like their manager, but the Dutchman has moved quickly to dismiss the claims.

Fulham manager Martin Jol has hit out at comments from former Cottagers striker Bobby Zamora, who suggested that most of the club's squad do not like the Dutchman.

Zamora was sold to Queens Park Rangers in January of last season after reports suggested his relationship with the 56-year-old had soured. Jol dismissed the accusations before hinting at the attitude problems which seemingly led to the Englishman's exit from Craven Cottage.

"It is probably sour grapes," Jol told the Evening Standard. "I think nothing is what it seems. Everyone knows me. The players know me, so one player will say this, another player will say that. It doesn't matter. I don't care. For me, the most important thing is we get the results, so you will have to ask the players.

"If they do well and work hard, I try to get a good relationship with them. If not, I don't. Insiders here know that this probably started after two weeks of me being here. There was a few leaks in the paper, and I asked him and he said 'No, it wasn't me.' I knew it was him and his agent 100 percent.

"He hated defense and later said he hated crosses as well and that was the moment I thought 'maybe it is better to sell' and that is what we did."

Zamora was the first of a number of recent high-profile departures from Craven Cottage, but the Fulham boss insists he has no issue with many of his former players.

"If you take Clint Dempsey, it is different from Mousa Dembele," Jol said. "Mousa was phoning me after his move and thanking me for everything. Every player is different. Clint wanted to move so then the relationship would not be great. Danny Murphy I wanted to keep so ask him. There were no issues at all.

"With Bobby it started after a couple of weeks. Everybody knew, and now he has moved on. I don't think it is typically English to make comments after year or eight months. We moved on, and it was not easy, because I had to get another No. 9. We did, because (Pavel) Pogrebnyak scored as many goals in a couple of weeks as my other strikers did in six months.

"Later we got (Dimitar) Berbatov, who was probably our best signing ever, so people who know us, know Fulham and know me, knew it was quite a challenge here. In hindsight, you could say we managed to do well."